The Pastoral Life of a Cultivation Master

Chapter 3012 Raising and Solving Problems 2
Ouyang Min fell silent for a moment, pondering what Han Chengye had said.

After a moment, he hesitated and said, "Let's put the cooperation with Qian and Zhou on hold for now. I have some questions I'd like to ask you."

"You said."

"It's still a problem of action," Ouyang Min said again. "Although you've proposed protective measures and explained how to get through the bushes, these steps might only take some time, and we should be able to get through. But what do we do once we reach the Red Bee area?"
"You must understand, not just the Red Bees there, but countless of them. Even the First Line Red Bees, surging in like blue waves, are more than a few of us at the tenth level of the Acquired Realm can handle."

As Ouyang Min finished speaking, Han Chengye felt the same way. Thinking of those waves of red swarms, who could possibly handle them? Especially since the red swarms attacked not only from the ground but also from the sky, leaping up and attacking from above. Who could possibly withstand such a dense, all-encompassing onslaught?

Even Qian Ying and Zhou Zixing, both innate masters, were no match for them. Just like when they encountered Yi Xian Hong's attack earlier, Qian Ying and Zhou Zixing were also struggling to cope, and their innate domains were almost exhausted, forcing everyone to temporarily use their qi and blood defenses to protect themselves.

Therefore, if you don't have a good method, you can forget about collecting honey.

"I've also considered this issue, but it might be somewhat incomplete. I need to discuss it with you to see if it works." Han Chengye had naturally considered this as well, but due to the sheer number of those red-lined rashes, he wasn't entirely confident about the method he had come up with.

"Go ahead and say it." Ouyang Min was interested in hearing Han Chengye's method; it might actually work, and he might even succeed.

As the old saying goes, "Three cobblers with their wits combined can equal one Zhuge Liang." One person's plan is limited, but two people's plans are more comprehensive. With two people discussing and refining their ideas, they might be able to perfect a solution.

"During tonight's honey-collecting operation, I don't know if you noticed, but after exiting the bush passage, we were faced with a stretch of black soil several hundred meters wide. Apart from the occasional red venomous snake crawling on it, there was nothing else. On both sides, there were beehives, red venomous snakes, and other plants several hundred meters apart."

"Yes, I noticed that when I came out of the bushes, I was a little curious about why there was a section in the middle that was several hundred meters wide with nothing but black soil, while on both sides were seas of flowers, beehives, and red spider plants, etc."

However, because Elder Qian was urging me on so urgently, I didn't look closely and just followed him towards the location of the hive," Ouyang Min said.

In fact, Ouyang Min knew why Elder Qian was urging him on, and he had no choice but to obey. After all, everyone was under the protection of Qian Ying's domain at the time. If he disobeyed and continued on his way, he might break out of the protection range of the innate domain, and facing a large number of first-tier red warriors would definitely not be easy.

Han Chengye knew this too, but he chuckled and said, "I did observe carefully and found that the black soil there is quite loose; when you step on it, it leaves a deep imprint. Also, the exit of the bush passage is roughly equidistant from the beehives on both sides, about two hundred meters away. Therefore, I thought of a method: without the protection of the natural domain, could we safely and smoothly collect honey?"

"what way?"

"Dig a hole!"

"Dig a hole?"

“That’s good! Because once you exit the bush passage, you’ll find black, fluffy soil. And there’s not much honey yet. So, we can head towards the hive for a while, then choose an area and start digging directly into the hive. We can then use the underground passage to collect honey from the hive. That’s the method I had in mind earlier.”

Of course, there are two questions I haven't thought of yet, and you can offer your suggestions. First, the soil in black soil is quite loose, so it might collapse when digging tunnels. And we're not just digging a few meters, but tens or even hundreds of meters long. How can we prevent such long tunnels from collapsing?

Secondly, is there any possibility that *Spathiphyllum* (a type of snake) might exist in the underground soil? After all, whether *Spathiphyllum* is highly venomous or a mythical beast, it is essentially a snake. And as with any snake, it cannot escape the habits of a snake, which is to dig burrows in the ground.

So, what should we do if we encounter a "line of red" (a type of underground geological feature) while digging a tunnel? How should we defend against it? Also, how numerous are these "line of red" underground? If there are too many, then there's no need for us to dig a tunnel.

Upon hearing Han Chengye's words, Ouyang Min realized that Han was right; these issues needed careful consideration. Moreover, with so many top-tier experts, even those at the tenth level of the Day-After-Day Realm didn't have much room for error.

Once surrounded by a line of red (referring to enemy forces), it's incredibly difficult to retreat and escape. They might leave standing up but return lying down.

After much discussion, the two finally decided to collect honey using Han Chengye's method. As for how to support the tunnel and what to do if they encountered a red line in the tunnel, they didn't know.

They had all made a decision: with so many branches from the bushes, they could collect enough to secure the tunnel. Of course, these branches couldn't be too thin; they had to be about the thickness of a wrist to support the soil layer in the tunnel.

Furthermore, inside the tunnel, the soil can be compacted while digging. For a master at the tenth level of the Acquired Realm, digging an underground tunnel that is one person high and two people wide is very simple. After all, their strength is such that digging ten meters or so in a very short time is no problem at all, and they can also compact the soil of the tunnel as they go. Once it is compacted, even if someone at the First Line Red Realm wants to enter the tunnel, it will take them some time, which will give the person in the tunnel time to react.

Furthermore, he and Han Chengye predicted that in the underground environment, as long as they did not dig out cavities or nests of the One-Line Red, they would not encounter too many One-Line Reds.

However, while all the solutions we came up with during the discussions were feasible, the implementation process required time and manpower.

It would take a considerable amount of time to clear a new path through the bushes, possibly a whole day, and the manpower would need to be replaced.

When Chen Mo was clearing the path through the bushes, his strength was much greater than Qian Ying's, which is why he was able to clear a path through the bushes in just over half a day.

If it were someone else, especially a martial artist who has acquired martial arts skills, the time and manpower required would naturally be incomparable to Chen Mo's; it would require much more time and manpower.

As for cutting down bushes and branches, weaving the defensive structure to withstand the attack of the Red Line, digging underground tunnels, and compacting them, all of these require time and manpower.

After discussing it back and forth, and considering the number of martial artists in their respective families, the two were somewhat discouraged. After all, the two families combined only had twenty-two people, and not all of them were at the tenth level of the Acquired Realm; there were only a few of them.

Therefore, to collect honey, it is still necessary to rely on the two innate masters to organize all the martial artists in order to obtain the target of the training - honey.

After discussing it for a while, the two sighed again, racking their brains trying to find a good way to keep all the honey they had collected for themselves.

Strength, strength—everything still depends on strength. If those two were innate masters, they could have acted immediately without needing to consider so much.

Therefore, they both wanted the honey even more, as it could enhance their strength.

With limited resources, they could only use these methods as conditions to discuss with Qian Ying and Zhou Zixing, and organize many martial artists to participate in order to obtain the precious honey.

Having made their decision, the two didn't delay and immediately got up to find Qian Ying and Zhou Zixing.

When Qian Ying saw the two of them come looking for her, she was a little curious and asked, "Why aren't you two resting? What brings you here?"

Han Chengye then went straight to the point and told Qian Ying the reason.

"You mean, you want to collect honey from red bees?"

"Yes, Elder Qian, after all, this honey is truly a wonderful thing, it would be a real shame to miss out." Han Chengye thought of the benefits of honey and its sweet and soothing taste, and wanted to take another sip. Unfortunately, he no longer had any honey in his hand, and could only rely on his memory to recall the taste.

However, Qian Ying has many bottles of honey, which is truly enviable.

Qian Ying didn't show any contempt, but simply chuckled and said, "You two are really being a bit presumptuous. I admit that honey is a good thing, but getting it is extremely difficult. You two participated in tonight's operation, and considering the deadly poison and quantity of the Red-lined Bee, as well as the deadly venom of the Red Bee, do you still want to collect honey?"

He sighed softly, seemingly shuddering at the thought of the overwhelming number of red-clad attackers they encountered during their gathering operation that evening. It was truly a curse; in this wretched place, wherever there was something good, there were always strange beasts guarding it, and these beasts were either excessively powerful or incredibly numerous—a real headache.

"Elder Qian, we've also considered these issues. So we've discussed them with Ouyang Min for a long time and come up with some methods. We've come to you now to discuss them and see if our methods will work. After all, you are a master of innate skill and have seen a lot. Please take a look at our methods and see if they're feasible," Han Chengye said to Qian Ying, feigning great admiration.

Of course, there was still some admiration in his eyes. After all, it was impossible not to admire a peak third-stage innate expert. However, there wasn't much admiration, just a little. More than anything, Han Chengye guessed that the method he and Ouyang Min came up with should be able to arouse Qian Ying's interest.

Besides, who doesn't need honey, a good thing that can enhance strength?

As for the earlier thought he and Ouyang Min had about Qian Ying's evil, what could they do in the face of something good? As long as they could get the honey, cooperating with a villain was not entirely unreasonable.